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jormis29
Since: Mar, 2012
FF32
Since: Jan, 2014

An American (Californian?) middle school-age boy is drafted into a race around the world, alongside several other children, including a girl named Susie (or Sara or something) from the Seychelles. The racers are sponsored by wealthy royals from monarchies that no longer exist; the protagonist's sponsor was a sheikh/caliph/etc. from a country that was swallowed up by the desert. The losing sponsors had to relinquish their royal claims; the main villain, a poacher (from Europe?), would therefore lose his diplomatic immunity. The protagonist told his mother he was going to summer camp, first traveled on a bus across the US, crossed Russia by train, and, in accordance with game rules, was detained for a day in Japan after trying to enter a subway train without paying (alongside his white drifter companion). The race was titled something like "the Great Global Game", and the initialism was reused differently throughout the book. For example, the protagonist told his drifter friend that "It's the Great Goosey Game, and I've just been cooked." during said subway incident.